The Hills Are Alive with the sound of music… literally

The Hills Are Alive festival is due to celebrate its 10th anniversary on the weekend of March 23-25 in picturesque South Gippsland, and the line-up is the icing on their scrumptious birthday cake.
What started off as a simple gathering of great friends and family to commemorate local talent suddenly fast tracked into an annual three day festival extravaganza that the McLaren brothers did not see coming.
Rounding up cattle on the dairy farm transitioned into landing artists to perform on their home turf at what is now known as The Hills Are Alive. Having used music as an outlet to escape the sometimes boringness of their quaint town, the brothers decided to host a “big party” to showcase some of their muso mates who had been trying to make it in the industry.
A simple idea blossomed into an amazing local festival, with some of Australia’s biggest names in music and comedy making their way to the famous Victorian hill. With appearances from Alex The Astronaut, Boo Seeka, Heaps Good Friends, Luca Brasi and Kim Churchill, it’s a priority to get your hands on one of the 2,500 tickets up for grabs.

One of the McLaren brothers, Aidan, says he is thrilled with the outcome of this year’s line-up. “We were really lucky. A lot of acts naturally said yes because so many bands have played here before and have had a good time. This influenced a lot of artists as they actually want to come and play here which makes things a lot easier for us. Boo Seeka played New Year’s Eve on The Hill which is our sister festival that we run on the same site. They played back in 2015 and had a great response from the crowd so it was kind of a no-brainer to welcome those guys back. Alex The Astronaut is just an act that we think is really, really exciting and quite unique and we sent the invitation to her to be a part of it and she really liked everyone else on the line up and the whole idea of it, so it’ll be her Hill debut,” Aidan says.
Celebrating 10 years of festival greatness this March, Aidan and his team are pulling a few tricks out of their hats. “There could be some birthday cake flowing around to give to the crowd at some point I’m sure. A few little surprises throughout the weekend but a lot of the celebration will be the great talent we’ve got coming down to enjoy. It’s just a big party,” he giggles.

I ask Aidan what it means to him and his family to bring everyone together in their humble town. “It’s a real honour to be honest. When we grew up there wasn’t much for music in the area, particularly live/original music, so it’s quite an amazing feeling when the festival is at full capacity and some of the best acts in the country are performing such amazing sets and thinking, ‘wow, this is where we used to round the cows up.’ It’s an amazing experience and we definitely don’t take it for granted. There’s a lot of amazing people from the local community who help make it happen and also the acts who choose to come and be part of it, they could be anywhere else over that weekend so for them to come down, we’re forever grateful for that,” he answers.
For more information about The Hills Are Alive and to purchase your tickets, head on over to www.thehillsarealive.com.au. Forte will see you there!
When & Where: The Hills Are Alive @ The Farm – 10 mins from Loch Village | 20 mins from Wonthaggi | 95 mins from Melbourne – Friday 23 March to Sunday 25 March.

Written by Hannah Kenny